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Andre Fili: Touching His Opposition With Strikes and Hearts With Kindness at UFC Gdansk

Andre ‘Touchy’ Fili (17-5) not only put his paws on the chin of Artem Lobov (14-14-1), in an attempt to fracture his spirit and facial structure, at UFC Fight Night 118, but the featherweight out of Team Alpha Male (TAM) also sought to draw those keyed into his post-fight interview closer together.

An over-saturation of negative energy has charged Fili to focus on spreading good will. Sure, he broadcasts his voice via his own podcast, entitled Touchy Subjects (link here), actively participates on all his social medias (Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook), and is a regular guest on TAM’s podcast, Stud Radio (link here), but there’s no grander stage, at least not in MMA, as several allocated minutes granted by the UFC.

After freezing Lobov for three rounds with fancy footwork and pinpoint strikes—one of which was a concussive head kick, Fili set the hurt business aside to warm the hearts of those inside Poland’s Ergo Arena, as well as logged into UFC Fight Pass, when sharing a sentiment that remains all too silent:

“To be honest, I don’t even want to talk about fighting right now,” he began. “I want to say something real quick: This whole two months I was in my fight camp, all I saw on the news was mass shootings and bombings and tsunamis and hurricanes, and there are forest fires all up and down California. You guys…We’ve got to start treating each other like human beings; we’ve got to show each other a little love. There’s only one race; it’s the human race. We got to start giving a shit about each other and giving a shit about this planet we inherited, and our kids and our grandkids are going to inherit.”